A state of the art fuel cell compressor is typically equipped with air bearings in order to generate an oil-free air supply for the fuel cell stack. An axial air bearing (thrust bearing) is located close to a compressor stage and requires a static housing part disposed adjacent a front side of the thrust bearing and between a rotating compressor impeller and a rotating thrust disk.
Typically, all rotating components of the compressor are located together on a common shaft assembly which is high precision balanced prior to assembly of the compressor. Once balanced, the shaft assembly must not be disassembled in order to maintain the balance thereof. One issue is that the static front side of the thrust bearing must become part of the shaft assembly since the conventional thrust bearing cannot be placed in position after the rotating components are assembled.
It would be desirable to develop a compressor and a method of producing the compressor, wherein the compressor includes a split housing having a first portion and a second portion to enable balancing of a rotating shaft assembly without having a thrust bearing hanging loose on the shaft assembly.